Interesting Article on Branding

I found this once through MSNBC’s Clicked, and realized that I didn’t get a chance to re-share it. It’s from Let the Good Times Roll by Guy Kawasaki called the Art of Branding.

In it he says:

“Focus on PR, not advertising. Many companies waste away millions of dollars trying to establish brands with advertising. When it comes to branding, too much money is worse than too little because when you have a lot of money, you spend a lot of money on stupid things like Super Bowl commercials. Brands are built on what people are saying about you, not what you’re saying about yourself. People say good things about you when (a) you have a great product and (b) you get people to spread the word about it.”

(Emphasis Mine.)

While I don’t necessarily think a Super Bowl Ad is a bad purchase (ask Bob Parsons), I agree wholeheartedly that you can’t buy a brand… or else every company with the moolah would have a successful one.

It fits so smoothly into the mission of a blog as well. Definitely worth a read.